Closure Report

Project Summary

This project (DTI015) delivered the initial release of the Student Record API into the development environment*, with read, write and validation functionality.  The API interacts with STUTALK which provides external access to student records within the Tribal SITS system.

This project is supporting delivery of the following projects by exposing student data that can be used by developers within those projects:

1. DTI011 - User Centred Portal Technological Pilot, part of the User Centred Portal (UCP) programme within Digital Transformation
2. SAS002 - Student Centred Portal Pilot, part of the Service Excellence, Student Administration and Support programme

The main objective was to build a set of tools which would allow us interact with the Student Record, these are currently in the development environment.

The completion of these tools is a significant development in our ability to exploit student data and will support future enhancements to the API as well as providing the current functionality.

Based on the blueprint developed by DTI014 (API Technology) the project developed a set of student end points:

1. Student- allows read and write of student data (student uun)
2. Student Address - read and write of student address data (term-time and residential address, email address, phone)
3. Emergency Contacts - read and write of student emergency contact details (contact details in case of emergency, incident etc)

A number of supporting lookups were developed which support the creation of addresses and emergency contacts:

1. Title
2. Termtime locations
3. Residential addresses
4. Relationship to student

The project delivered an API with the following collection of methods:

• GET /students/lookup/relationship
• GET /students/lookup/residential
• GET /students/lookup/termtime
• GET /students/lookup/title
• GET /students/uun
• POST /students/uun
• GET /students/uun/address
• POST /students/uun/address/
• POST /students/uun/address/id
• GET /students/uun/emergency
• POST /students/uun/emergency/id

The project implemented additional security on the top of existing OAuth authentication.

*The follow-on project DTI024 will deploy the API - PICCL Decision 3.

Key Project Dates

1. Sign-off Project Brief 5/5/17
2. Build review - read 29/5/17
3. Build review - write 30/6/17
4. Build review - validate 1/8/17

Key Project Issues and Changes

1. Decision that project has priority of 1 - PICCL Decision 1 - 31/3/17
2. Change to project budget following planning for 17-18 - PICCL Change 2 - 14/8/17
3. Decision to deploy API during DTI024 - PICCL Decision 3 - 21/8/17

Analysis of Resource Usage:

Staff Usage Estimate: 90 days

Staff Usage Actual: 110 days

Staff Usage Variance:  22%

Other Resource Estimate: £0

Other Resource Actual: £0

Other Resource Variance: N/A

Explanation for Variance

More effort (20d) than was planned was required to deliver this API due to this being the first Student Record API that has been developed by the University.

Key Learning Points

1. An initial proof of concept for STUTALK informed the design - see proof of concept summary report.  The approach of initially developing a proof of concept reduced the risk to the design and build phases.
2. Co-location and integration of team members as early in the project as possible would have been beneficial
3. The development of API standards (for example naming conventions) is still evolving as the University's experience of API development matures

Outstanding Issues

1. Original objectives not delivered but will be delivered in subsequent projects - the follow-on project DTI024 will deploy the API - PICCL Decision 3.
2. The follow-on project DTI024 will deliver additional Student Record APIs or extend the collection of methods on the initial release of the Student Record API (delivered by this project)
3. Further work on API standards will take place in the follow-on project DTI024